Want evidence that drug addiction is a massive, growing problem in the U.S.? The presidential candidates have plenty of stories to share.
A Huffington Post video featuring Chris Christie went viral this week, garnering more than 5 million views on Facebook. In it, the New Jersey governor talks about a highly successful law school colleague who committed suicide after becoming addicted to Percocet he was initially given for back pain.
That story, according to Christie, is an example of how the U.S. needs more policies ensuring drug abusers can get the help they need.
“He had everything,” Christie told an audience in New Hampshire. “He’s a drug addict and he couldn’t get help and he’s dead. It can happen to anyone.”
For other candidates, drug abuse is even more personal.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush discussed his daughter’s struggle with drugs in a video posted Thursday, sharing how hard it was to deal with the media frenzy around Noelle’s addiction to prescription drugs and crack cocaine, which eventually landed her in jail.
“She went through hell, and so did her mom and so did her dad,” Bush told the Huffington Post.
Carly Fiorina’s stepdaughter died after her own battle with drug addiction. The former Hewlett Packard chief executive has periodically discussed Lori Ann’s death on the campaign trail, referring to it in a recent presidential debate where she called for more actions to address drug abuse.
“We need to tell young people the truth,” Fiorina said at the Reagan Library in September. “Drug addiction is an epidemic and it is taking too many of our young people. My husband Frank and I buried a child to drug addiction.”
And in his book released over the summer, Sen. Ted Cruz detailed how his half-sister, Miriam, died four years ago from an accidental drug overdose.
“It was heartbreaking,” he wrote of her death. “I loved my sister, and she spent much of her life trapped by the demons of addiction and anger.”
Drug abuse, especially of opioid painkillers, is increasing around the country, including in the early presidential primary states Republicans are battling to win. In Iowa, deaths from opioid overdoses have nearly tripled in the last decade and New Hampshire residents, in a WMUR poll last month, ranked drug abuse as the most important issue in the presidential campaign.
Overdose deaths rose by 6 percent nationally in 2013, according to a report released Wednesday by the Drug Enforcement Agency, an even steeper increase than in the last few years. Deaths from drug overdose have outpaced deaths from car crashes every year since 2008.
So far, Democratic contender Hillary Clinton is the only presidential candidate to put out a detailed plan to deal with the problem. Under her $10 billion proposal, states would get federal funds to pair with their own spending to boost local treatment programs. It also would direct state attorneys general to prioritize treatment over incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders.
Of all the Republicans, Christie has perhaps been the most vocal and active on drug abuse. He has spoken repeatedly about the issue on the campaign trail and signed legislation in his state improving access to prevention and treatment.
Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who has become a leading advocate for mental health, is seeking to pressure the candidates to become even more active on the issue and introduce their own ideas.
His group, the Kennedy Forum, is leading a new campaign it is calling NOW to encourage the 2016 candidates to talk more about drug abuse. The campaign will kick off Tuesday with an event in Manchester, N.H., which Kennedy will moderate.
“If you were to mobilize the millions of Americans affected by a mental health condition or addiction, you could change the course of an election,” Kennedy told the Washington Examiner. “That’s what’s the NOW Campaign is designed to do — to give a voice to this constituency, and push for change at the ballot box.”
